Joanie Loves Chachi
Joanie Loves Chachi was an unsuccessful, short-lived spin-off of the hit television series Happy Days. It was originally broadcast on ABC-TV from March 23, 1982 until May 24, 1983. The show was cancelled due to low ratings. It starred Erin Moran and Scott Baio. Plot summary Joanie and Chachi have moved to Chicago to make it on their own with a music career together. Storyline The series is set in the early to mid-1960s and follows the exploits of Joanie and Chachi as they moved to Chicago and tried to make it on their own with a rock band and a music career at a time when the British Invasion was looming (one episode was titled "Beatlemania"). It mixed the traditional elements of a sitcom with musical performances on each show by Baio and Moran. In fact, the beginning credit sequence of the show had them singing to each other. Their backup band consists of a spaced-out drummer named Bingo and Chachi's blasé cousins Mario and Annette. Characters The series also starred Ellen Travolta as Louisa Arcola-Delvecchio, Chachi's mother (Travolta and Baio would star again as mother and son later in the CBS-TV sitcom series Charles in Charge), and Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio, Chachi's new stepfather (and formerly the owner of Arnold's Drive-In in Happy Days), who opened a restaurant in which Chachi and Joanie performed most of their music. Art Metrano played Chachi's uncle Rico Mastorelli, who was the band's manager and helped Joanie and Chachi advance in their careers. Winifred Freedman (she would later play on a soap opera called Rituals) played Rico's daughter, Annette, Chachi's cousin, and bandmate. Ratings *Season 1: #17 *Season 2: #60 Cancellation The show initially attracted high ratings for the first few episodes, but the ratings plummeted in Season 2 with a move to Thursday nights, and the series only lasted for two seasons (both abbreviated) before the characters were rolled back into Happy Days for that program's final season. ABC determined that the show was losing too much of its lead-in, suggesting low appeal if the show were moved. In 2010, TV Guide Network listed the show at #17 on its list of 25 Biggest TV Blunders, arguing that Joanie and Chachi was not what viewers wanted to see and that it was the Fonz who drew viewers in to Happy Days. Main cast Episodes Season 1 Season 2 DVD release On February 4, 2014, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) released Joanie Loves Chachi - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. In popular media In the pilot episode of the NBC-TV sitcom series Friends, taped on 4 May 1994, Rachel Green is watching the show after she breaks up with her fiance Barry. She says, "See! But Joanie loved Chachi! That's the difference!" On the Beastie Boys track'' "Get It Together", released on 17 March 1994, guest vocalist rapper Q-Tip likens band member Ad Rock's close relationship with his then wife Ione Skye, to that of ''"Chachi and Joanie"; Ad Rock himself then replies, in rhyme, "'Cause she's the cheese and I'm the macaroni!" In the 2004 film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story when White Goodman (played by Ben Stiller) hits Justin with a dodgeball, he says "Joanie loves Chachi!". References External links Category:TV shows